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Ang Nga Longva's picture

Ang Nga Longva

Emerita
  • E-mailanh.longva@uib.no
  • Visitor Address
    Fosswinckels gate 6
    Lauritz Meltzers hus
    5007 Bergen
  • Postal Address
    Postboks 7802
    5020 Bergen

My main research areas are identity, power, language, knowledge production, international migration, and ethnic relations.

From 1987 and throughout the 1990s, my research was concentrated on the Arab Gulf region, more specifically Kuwait. I looked into the following aspects of Kuwaiti society: labour migration, ethnic relations between Kuwaitis and migrants, characterized by power and submission; the social position of women; the formation of Kuwaiti self-image and national identity; the ambivalent category of ‘Bedouin’; and the conceptualization of citizenship and democracy in a society shaped by labour migration, a rentier economy, a uniquely generous welfare state, and a cultural tradition based on Islam and tribalism.

In 2003 the focus of my research shifted from ethnic pluralism in Kuwait to religious pluralism in Lebanon. The main research question here is what accounts for the durability of Lebanese everyday (as opposed to political) confessionalism. I use an approach which looks upon confessional identity as the result of a special type of knowledge production deriving from two key institutions, the family and the school. Two additional variables in my analysis are the state and civil society. Fieldwork in Lebanon is carried out in Beirut, mainly among Maronite and Greek Orthodox Christians .

Alongside my ongoing research in Lebanon, I initiated in 2012 a project titled ‘Terms of reference and address and notions of personhood’. Central in this project is the hypothesis that notions of individuality and personhood are closely related to linguistic structure, in particular the use of personal pronouns. If self-awareness hinges on the use of I – a Cartesian principle still widely held -  what effect does this pronoun’s quasi-absence in the Vietnamese language have on the Vietnamese speakers? In the initial phase of the research, fieldwork is conducted in Southern California where the largest Vietnamese diaspora is located.

F-2011, F-2012: Anthropological research methodology and theory development (SANT 301)

S-2011, S-2012: Comparative regional ethnography (SANT 215)

S-2006, S-2008, F-2009: State, culture, identity (SANT 205)

S-2007, S-2008, S-2009: History of anthropology and theory development (SANT 201)

F-2006, F-2008: Introduction to Anthropology (SANT 101)

F- 2005: Anthropological research methodology and theory development (SANT 301)

Academic article
  • Show author(s) (2006). Nationalism in pre-modern guise: The discourse on Hadhar and Badu in Kuwait. International Journal of Middle East Studies. 171-187.
  • Show author(s) (2003). The trouble with difference: gender, ethnicity and Norwegian social democracy. Comparative Social Research. 153-176.
  • Show author(s) (2003). Nordmenn, høflighet og kunsten å omgås fremmede. Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift. 16-25.
  • Show author(s) (2003). Introduksjon: "Non-native" antropologer om Norge. Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift. 4-7.
  • Show author(s) (2002). The apostasy law in Kuwait and the liberal predicament. Cultural Dynamics.
  • Show author(s) (2001). Når hverdagslivet blir feltarbeid: erfaring og antropologisk kunnskap. Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift. 85-93.
  • Show author(s) (1999). Keeping migrant workers in check: the kafala system in the Gulf. Middle East Report.
  • Show author(s) (1997). Kuwaiti Women at a Crossroads: Privileged Development and the Constrai nts of Ethniv Stratification. Arab Society: Class, Gender, Power and Development.
  • Show author(s) (1997). Current debates on the construction of culture: How to make the anthro pological concept fit a contemporary world. Sosiologisk Årbok. 155-176.
  • Show author(s) (1995). Between the exotic and the objectionable:anthropology in a world of bl urred contrasts. Working Paper, NUPI. 18.
Popular scientific lecture
  • Show author(s) (1998). The apostasy law in the age of human rights and citizenship: some legal and political implications.
  • Show author(s) (1998). Demokrati i Norge: en hindring for multikulturalisme?
  • Show author(s) (1998). Apostasy or the problem with liberal democracy.
Academic lecture
  • Show author(s) (2012). Unspeakable'I', unspeakable 'you': pronoun avoidance, self hood, and the construction of the Vietnamese social world.
  • Show author(s) (2004). The public sphere, legitimacy and recognition in Kuwait.
  • Show author(s) (2004). The linguistic dimension of sectarian identity in Lebanon.
  • Show author(s) (2004). Gramsci in Lebanon: hegemony, civil society and the weak state.
  • Show author(s) (2004). City planning along ethnic lines: some consequences on the public sphere in Kuwait.
  • Show author(s) (2002). The Asianization of the Gulf.
  • Show author(s) (2001). The trouble with difference: Gender, ethnicity and Norwegian social democracy.
  • Show author(s) (2001). The apostasy law in the Middle East and the liberal predicament.
  • Show author(s) (2001). Neither autocracy nor democracy but ethnocracy: citizens, expatriates and the socio-political system in Kuwait.
  • Show author(s) (2000). The patriarchal face of the nation-state: women in citizenship laws.
  • Show author(s) (2000). Likhetstankegang og Multikulturalisme.
  • Show author(s) (2000). Apostasy,civil death and the liberal predicament.
  • Show author(s) (2000). Apostasy,civil death and the liberal predicament.
  • Show author(s) (1999). Hadhar and Badu in Kuwait: modern statehood, Western-styled politics and the reinvention of tradition.
Book review
  • Show author(s) (2002). Bokanmeldelse. "Sand i maskineriet. Makt og demokrati i det flerkulturelle Norge". Grete Brochman, Tordis Borchgrevink og Jon Rogstad. Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift. 249-251.
Academic anthology/Conference proceedings
  • Show author(s) (2012). Religious Minorities in the Middle East: Domination, Self-Empowerment, Accommodation. Brill Academic Publishers.
Non-fiction book
  • Show author(s) (1997). Walls Built on Sand: Migration, Exclusion, and Sosiety in Kuwait. Westview Press,Boulder, Colorado, and Oxford,UK.
Masters thesis
  • Show author(s) (2018). "I love my country, but it needs to change": An ethnography of defiance, public space, and migration among young middle-class women in Tehran, Iran.
  • Show author(s) (2016). Kaldt ute, men varmt inne. En studie av sosialitet i Longyearbyen.
  • Show author(s) (2016). Innenfor og utenfor i Frankrike. Sosiale og byråkratiske utfordringer for maghrebinske muslimer i interetniske forhold.
  • Show author(s) (2016). Fordi slik er tradisjonene våre: En etnografisk studie av tradisjon, endring og agens blant kvinner i innlandet av Oman.
  • Show author(s) (2014). Rebel, Rebel. Kvinner i Kairos liv og møte med seksuell trakassering og overgrep.
  • Show author(s) (2012). Is the ‘New Man’ dead? Tourism, self-perception and relative deprivation in Cuba.
  • Show author(s) (2011). "Å ta det beste fra to kulturer" - En studie av tamilenes hverdagsliv i Bergen.
  • Show author(s) (2011). "I feel my identity is being used against my will" - Israelske fredsaktivister og kampen mot det nasjonale narrativ.
  • Show author(s) (2010). Forestillinger om alderdom. En studie av eldre mennesker i det norske samfunnet og samfunnets forestillinger om dem.
  • Show author(s) (2010). "Palestine Is Everything: My Homeland, My Religion, My Tradition. Without It I Am a Refugee". Drømmen om retur blant palestinske flyktninger i Rashediyeh, Sør-Libanon.
  • Show author(s) (2009). Kvinners liv og hverdag i Damaskus.
  • Show author(s) (2009). Kryssende lojaliteter, konkurrerende autoriteter. Stat, stamme, religion og nasjon blant kurdere i syriske Jazeera.
  • Show author(s) (2008). Pass og citadell -Franskbruk i Tunis.
  • Show author(s) (2008). Kjønnslikestilling. En grense mellom "oss" og "dem"?
  • Show author(s) (2007). Til kulturen skiller oss ad. En studie av skillsmisse blant pakistanske kvinner i Norge.
  • Show author(s) (2007). The custom will probably never die out?Shan tatoveringspraksis i møte med moderne thai identitet.
  • Show author(s) (2007). Education and Revitalisation.The role of bilingual education in processes of ethnic revitalisation in the Ecuardorian highlands.
  • Show author(s) (2007). Arbeid over grenser. Sosiale og faglige relasjoner i et fleretnisk arbeidsmiljø.
  • Show author(s) (2006). What`s up Dawg! En analyse av identitetskonstruksjon blant unge somaliske menn i Norge.
  • Show author(s) (2005). To be or not to be. Om strategier for overlevelse, maktkamp og vennskap i et kostskolehus.
Popular scientific article
  • Show author(s) (2003). Reforms in Bahrain: democratization or the strengthening of autocracy through liberalization? Babylon - Nordisk tidsskrift for Midtøstenstudier. 52-59.
Interview
  • Show author(s) (2004). Uhøflige, vi?
  • Show author(s) (2004). Ekspert blikk på nordmenn.
  • Show author(s) (2004). "Barn mangler folkeskikk" - hva ville du gjort?
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper
  • Show author(s) (2018). The state? What state? State, confessionalism and civil society in Lebanon .
  • Show author(s) (2012). Introduction. 23 pages.
  • Show author(s) (2012). From the Dhimma to the Capitulations: Memory and Experience of Protection in Lebanon. 23 pages.
  • Show author(s) (1997). Kuwaiti Women at a Crossroads: Privileged Development and the Constraints of Ethniv Stratification.

More information in national current research information system (CRIStin)

Monograph
1997. Walls Built on Sand - Migration, Exclusion and Society in Kuwait. Boulder: Westview Press.


Edited book
[edited with Anne Sofie Roald] 2011 Religious Minorities in the Middle East. Domination, Self-Empowerment, Accommodation. In the series "Social, Economic and Political Studies of the Middle East and Asia". Leiden: Brill, p. 370.



Chapters in anthologies
[Forthcoming] "Everyday confessionalism in Lebanon or when the state surrenders to civil society”, i Bruce Kapferer (red.) Transmutations of Power in Contemporary Global Realities.

2011a. From the Dhimma to the Capitulations: Memory and Experience of Protection in Lebanon, in Anh Nga Longva and Anne Sofie Roald (eds) Religious Minorities in the Middle East. Domination, Self-Empowerment, Accommodation. In the series "Social, Economic and Political Studies of the Middle East and Asia". Leiden: Brill.

2011b. Introduction: Domination, Self-empowerment, Accommodation, in Anh Nga Longva and Anne Sofie Roald (eds) Religious Minorities in the Middle East. Domination, Self-Empowerment, Accommodation. In the series "Social, Economic and Political Studies of the Middle East and Asia". Leiden: Brill.

2005. Neither autocracy nor democracy but ethnocracy: Citizens, expatriates, and the socio-political regime in Kuwait, in Monarchies and Nations - Globalisation and Identity in the Arab States of the Gulf. Paul Dresch and James Piscatori (eds). London: I.B.Tauris, pp. 114-135.

2000. Citizenship in the Gulf States: Conceptualization and Practice, in Citizenship and the State in the Middle East. N.A. Butenschön, U.Davis, and M. Hassassian (eds). Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, pp. 179-200.

1992. Etnisk organisering blant vietnamesiske flyktninger, i Felleskap til besvær? Om nyere innvandring til Norge. Long Litt Woon (ed.). Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, pp. 54-66.


Articles in journals
2006. Nationalism in pre-modern guise: The discourse on hadhar and badu in Kuwait. International Journal of Middle East Studies, 38 (2): 171-187.

2003a. Nordmenn, høflighet og kunsten å omgås fremmede. Norsk Antropologisk Tidskrift, 14(1): 16-25.

2003b. The trouble with difference: Gender, ethnicity, and Norwegian social democracy. The Multicultural Challenge. Comparative Social Research, 22: 154-176

2002. The apostasy law in Kuwait and the liberal predicament. Cultural Dynamics, 14 (3): 257-282.

2001. Når hverdagslivet blir feltarbeid: fra erfaring til antropologisk kunnskap. Norsk Antropologisk Tidskrift, 12 (1-2): 85-93.

1995. Citizenship, identity and the question of supreme loyalty: the
case of Kuwait". Forum for Development Studies, 2: 197-219

1993. Kuwaiti women at a crossroads: Privileged development and the constraints of ethnic stratification. International Journal of Middle East Studies, 25 (3): 443-456.


Book reviews, shorter debate pieces
2003. Reforms in Bahrain: Democratization or the strengthening of
autocracy through liberalization? Babylon, 1: 52-59.

2002. "Sand i maskineriet: makt og demokrati i det flerkulturelle Norge" (book review). Norsk Antropologisk Tidskrift, 4: 250-252.

1999. Keeping migrants in check. MERIP (Middle East Research and Information Project): 211.

 

Completed projects:

1987-1994: Kuwait and its migrant workers

1994 - 2002: Development without tears, democracy without meaning? A comparison between Kuwait and Bahrain (Norwegian Research Council).

2002 - 2005: The city and the public sphere in the Middle East (Social Science Research Council)

2005 - 2008: Contrasting identity politics: the Maronite and the Greek Orthodox communities in Lebanon (Global Moments in the Levant- program).

2003-2010: The state and the challenge of primordial loyalties (Challenging the State-progam).

2009-2011: Memory and experience of protection among Maronites and Greek Orthodox in Lebanon (Power and Powerlessness-program. UiB, CMI, IREMAM)


On-going projects:
2003 -  : Confessional identity and knowledge production in Lebanon

2012-  : Terms of reference and address and notions of personhood among Vietnamese.

Regional focucs: Middle East (Gulf, Lebanon), Southeast Asia (Vietnam), Scandinavia (Norway)

Thematic focus: Identity, power, language,  knowledge production, international migration, ethnic relations